In the course of the novel we discover that Lord Marchmain was a real scoundrel. He estranged himself from his devout Catholic family and was living in Venice, sharing a roof with his Italian mistress, and living a truly profane lifestyle, devoid of all religion, focused on the pursuit of carnal pleasure, almost as if he were intentionally trying to flee from God.
Well, near the end of the book, Lord Marchmain, having reached the end of his life, returns home to Brideshead and to his family, in order to die in the place and with the people he once cherished. Marchmain’s devout family sends for a priest to absolve the dying Lord of his sins and to administer the last rites, but Marchmain, still running away from God sends the priest away. This grieves the family, of course, deeply, as this rejection of the priest and absolution, is akin to rejection of God, and so they worry for Marchmain’s eternal soul, whose eternal soul now hangs in the balance. So the family fasts and prays assiduously, as Lord Marchmain quickly approached his final hour. Marchmain grows so weak, he cannot open his eyes. Hoping for a miracle, the family summons the priest once again. And then the miracle occurs. Marchmain, who had been too weak to even open his eyes, lifts his arm to make the sign of the cross as the priest absolved him, and he died in God’s grace.
Captain Ryder, who had been an atheist, mocked the idea of faith and a God who would forgive a man who betrayed his family and spent decades pursuing carnal pleasure, who could be forgiven with a simple sign of the cross in his dying moment. And yet, now, at the end of the book, looking at the strange tapestry of his life, Ryder identified that moment, that sign of the cross from a dying man, as the moment where he began to believe. And he enters the chapel of the mostly dilapidated Brideshead mansion, and genuflects before the tabernacle.
I always think of that scene in relation to the Gospel passage for this weekend. For, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the Lord conveyed a number of very important lessons about accepting the grace of God before the day runs out.
The first lesson is that that grace is available to everyone. This would be a difficult lesson for Jesus’ Jewish audience. For the Jews possessed a very special relationship with God throughout human history, they were like those workers who had been working in the vineyard since the beginning of the work day. And they would have to come to accept that God’s grace and the invitation to membership in God’s kingdom through Jesus, was now being offered to the Gentiles, all the races of the earth. So, they should not complain, demanding a higher wage or special status. Rather, they should welcome the latecomers into the fellowship of God’s kingdom with open arms.
Secondly, the parable teaches us that sometimes souls accept God’s invitation at different times in their lives. Infants and babies and young children, who are baptized early in life, they are put to work in the vineyard of the Lord quite early—they have the benefit of learning the family business, so to speak, quite early. Some souls accept the invitation only after some rebellious teenage years. For some people, it takes hitting rock bottom due to an addiction, where they realize that God is calling them to something more. For some souls it is after a major crisis, like a death of a loved one, that they realize they need to accept God’s invitation before it is too late. And for some, like Lord Marchmain, it is on the death bed, where God, the fisherman, makes that final tug of the line, gives that final opportunity to accept his grace. We should never stop inviting souls to join in the Lord’s work, for the Lord uses us to make the invitation.
But, thirdly, this parable also hints at the urgency to accept the invitation to grace. For the work day does in fact come to a close. The sun finally does set. Human life and human history will come to an end when no more will be hired. And for those souls who do not accept the invitation to work for God by life’s end, there will be eternal consequences. There would have been eternal consequences for Lord Marchmain if he had refused to repent and believe in the Gospel. There is no chance for repentance once the sun of life sets. One of the great pains of those in hell is that they know they rejected the invitation of God, they know things could have been different, and they know it’s all their fault. For, there is not a soul in hell to whom God did not give ample opportunity for salvation. So we should urge souls not to put off conversion, lest death take them by surprise and find them unrepentant. And each of us must seek to grow in holiness with the time that we’ve been given.
For as Isaiah says in our first reading, “seek the Lord when he can be found, Let the scoundrel forsake his way, let him turn to the LORD for mercy”. Accepting the invitation to know God, to love him, and to serve him with the time we have available is the most important thing in life. So we must fast and pray and invite, like the members of the Marchmain household for their initially unrepentant father.
Perhaps, this is also a good reminder, to make sure your family knows your desire to send for a priest when the Lord calls you home. And you never know, as you lay dying, the Lord may wish to use your faith, to touch the hearts of unbelieving family members, like Charles Ryder in the story.
There are many dear Catholics who have been deprived a Catholic funeral because their non-practicing family members don’t want to go to all that trouble. So make sure your end-of-life requests are clearly made known to your family.
At the 11 am Mass, I will be administering the Sacrament of Confirmation upon eight of our parishioners, eight people, eight very different people, who recognized at this time an invitation from the Lord to grow in Sacramental Grace. Through the Sacrament of Confirmation, the bond they share with the Church is strengthened, their openness to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s gifts is deepened. The Lord made the invitation to grace, and they responded. They are a wonderful example to all of us, that no matter where we are in life, God is calling us to holiness, and God wants to put us to work.
Our prayers are with Matthew, Andrew, Tarryn, Serenity, Samantha, Deanna, Danica, and Destiny, that the manifest gifts of the Holy Spirit may flourish in their lives, and that they may be a reminder to all of us, to respond to the Lord’s invitation, to seek the Lord when he may be found, and be generous in offering our time, talent, and treasure in service of the Lord’s work, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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